Atticus likes Elora!

Brother and sister

The title of this post expresses my surprise about this.

When we had Atticus, Dante was not quite four years old. He acknowledged Atticus' presence but didn't really express much in the way of interest towards his little brother. Now he is almost six and much more accepting of a little sister, but only shows interest when other people are admiring her.

When we were still in hospital, Atticus did pretty much the same thing except he did exclaim "baby!" whenever she was pointed out to him. I wasn't worried about this since the environment was new and much more interesting to him - plus he only came to see us after a day of child care so was pretty tired. I was more worried about how he would react to Elora when we came home and he realised that she was ours to keep.

Well, I'm very pleased to say that he has been really quite amazing with her. He is happy to see her and wants to look into her bassinette whenever he can. This morning after breakfast I asked if he wanted to see the baby and he was really keen! We quietly went over and peeped at her.

"Shh..." he said. "Baby sleeping in bed." And put his finger to his lips.
"That's your mei-mei", I told him. He repeated me.
"Elora."
"Erora. Baby. Mei-mei."

Aww! So cute!

The other thing that has struck me since coming home is how HUGE Atticus is now! He's soooo heavy. His head is soooo big! His nappies are soooo large! It feels like he has doubled in size and grown up so much in the last week! Uncanny!

Time to waste?

Two shockwave flash games to fill in those hundreds of spare hours everyone has in their lives...

Quad - somewhat like Tetris, but you have to get the blue squares into the middle by completing lines.

Virus - start in the left hand corner and choose what colour to change into to take over the board. Not the greatest explanation, but you've just got to try it to see what I mean.

Oh, and I turned a billion seconds old yesterday afternoon! Dan bought me a box of chocolates and this beautiful red cyclamen plant. I hope I don't kill it too quickly.

Welcome to the world, Elora

I've been offline for the last four days... because I had my baby on Monday! (11 days early)

Born at 12:21pm, 19th February 2007.
Weight 3010g
Length 49.5cm
Head circumference 33.5cm

The labour was surprisingly quick. Not as quick as with Atticus, but in a way I knew that one was coming (had a bunch of early signs) - this one came upon us with no warning (no "show" at all and the waters didn't break - had to be broken right at the end)! The first contraction was at around 6:30am and my mother took me to hospital a little after 10am. Dan had taken the kids to school/child care and gone to work (knowing that he wouldn't get a full day in, but hoping to get at least half a day of work!).

The "second stage" of the labour (the actual pushing part) was the most surprising part of all! It took about 10 minutes!! When they told me that the head was out I could not believe it - I had expected it to take much longer. What a relief! Everything went really well and I have the most gorgeous little baby girl, who looks exactly like Atticus when he was born, except a lot skinnier and with thicker, blacker hair.

We finally got to come home today - tonight should be interesting. Atticus has visited us in hospital but it will really hit home that the baby is ours when he sees her here. Dante was much better prepared and has been really lovely.

I'm going to go and have a rest now but will write more and post more pictures soon.

Yay us!

Gung Hei Fat Choi

or "Xin Nian Kuai Le" in Mandarin (the former means "Good luck and prosperity" or something like that, in Cantonese, the latter just means "Happy New Year" - the Cantonese equivalent is "Sun Yin Fai Lok").

I've definitely missed my opportunity to have a little "dog" (unless I want to wait another 11 years - I don't think so!), but everyone's been telling me that this year, the "Golden" pig is very auspicious, and only occurs every 60 years. So, I can't really complain, can I?

All's going well - having a relaxing day not doing much and trying to keep out of the heat. No sign of baby.

This picture is of the "Chinese Crackers" that Dante made at vacation care last month. I thought they were terrific!

CNY Eve and two birthdays

Today's my mother's birthday. I am the worst daughter ever. Because I forgot to wish her "Happy Birthday" until about 4pm, even though I spent practically all morning and the rest of the day with her.

The reason I forgot, though, is because it is Chinese New Year's Eve today and we had a big family gathering/late lunch (well, just the immediate family but that's over twenty people) and I was helping my folks prepare, as well as trying to cook a spanish omelette for the first time ever (it was okay - fell apart a bit... not as good as my mother's).

The food was abundant... so were the flies. The kids had a great time running around the backyard doing whatever it is that kids do. The two big boys (Ben, 13, and Dante, almost 6) went a little crazy with water pistols, but it was hot. The game had to be stopped when I got squirted while bringing in the washing... party pooper me! We had a tonne of cakes and other desserts - it's my brother Tim's birthday on Monday, too. A busy time of year for us all.

Afterwards my brother set up the PS2 that he'd borrowed for Ben's 13th birthday party last week and spent the rest of the afternoon playing "Singstar" - I wasn't too keen, much preferring Guitar Hero, until we discovered the "80's" version... I sang a couple of songs with my hubby before we put the desperately tired kids to bed.

The other great thing that brother (Mark) did was take this photo of the three pregnant ladies - all going to have "golden" pigs (unless I give birth in the next two hours... unlikely!). I'm due in 13 days, the next is due on the 9th April and the next in early June.

Neat pic, huh?

Post-valentine night out

We went on a date! Sort-of. Dinner and a movie. No kids. That's a date, right?

We managed to organise for both kids to have sleep-overs tonight. Dante was picked up from school/after care by his most wonderful Auntie Bec, and Atticus stayed at home with my folks. So, Dan and I headed out to dinner (I had salmon, he had steak) and then went and saw a very "chick" (not "chic") flick. I don't often get to go out to see a film that's not targeted at kids, so I decided we should see something girly, since Dan goes out to see his zombie/horror/sci-fi films with the lads every so often. Unfortunately there were no Jane Austen remakes so this had to do. It was fun, although obviously very cheesy and predictable.

Anyway, it was nice to get out. Now I've just got to work on the "not feeling guilty for dumping my kids on other people for the night" part of it.

Still here...

Just a quick "heads up" to let you all know that I'm still here in one piece - haven't rushed off to hospital just yet. I'm feeling a lot better than I was last week, though, which is great news. Still a little tired but not nearly as fatigued as I was. Just hanging around the house taking it easy, resting, eating... might do some cleaning up at some point, or start a new quilt :)

Feelin' restless

I must be feeling better today. Maybe because it's Saturday and I've had plenty of time to rest and not do anything.

But now, it's 5:40 in the afternoon and I'm really really restless. I feel like I need to DO SOMETHING. Argh. We're going out to my brother's place for dinner tonight (to celebrate my nephew's thirteenth birthday this Wednesday) so there's not much point getting stuck into any big task... The kids have been wonderful all day - Atti had a great two and a half hour nap while Dante played on the computer and watched Star Wars on tele (again). They had quite a busy morning with swimming lessons and then piano lessons (well, only Dante had the latter).

What have I done today? Besides sleeping, I've eaten lunch, gotten frustrated by the "Samurai Sudoku" in the weekend paper, put on and hung out three loads of washing, mucked around playing the piano... and that's about it. I wonder what I can do now - my brother said not to come over too early so we've still got another hour or so before we can leave! I feel like I should be doing something to prepare for the bub, but I don't want to wear myself out... I hope this isn't the "burst of energy" before labour begins.

Oh well, here's a photo that Dan took of the most amazing sky we had the other night.

Last day of work for a while!

Hooray! Today's my last day of work for the year - barring things like coming in for meetings and upgrading the undergraduate computer lab which I've got scheduled for June/July (erk - long story). I'm starting maternity leave yet again.

I was actually meant to be at work for another week but this week I have suffered such extreme levels of fatigue and exhaustion that I've turned into a bit of a pin-cushion giving blood samples to doctors. Earlier in the week I was so tired that my legs kept buckling underneath me when I walked and I could barely keep my eyes open. I took some days off and slept and slept and slept... probably was awake for 6 out of 48 hours! And yet, all the test results have come back normal so far. Don't have gestational diabetes. Don't have pre-eclampsia. Iron levels are good. Some people say it's a symptom of "having two kids, working full time and being over 8 months pregnant" but it feels so much more tiring than that.

So yesterday at my check-up at the hospital, the doctors told me to stop work, and rest. That's after they took some more blood for one more test, that is. Last night I decided that today would be my last day. It seems to have had a positive affect on me. I've actually managed to stay awake for most of the afternoon, so far. Almost ready for a nap, though. Thank goodness for the comfy chair in my office!

And now there's three more weeks before bub is technically due. I'm not really sure if I want her to come early or not now as I am really looking forward to having some quiet time at home to build up the energy reserves for the trying times ahead. And I feel like sewing (quilting), amazingly! Well, time will tell.

Sucker for sales

Dan and I went shopping last night. We worked quickly and efficiently from the moment we got home and managed to get both kids down to bed by 8 o'clock! That's quite a record for us. My mother, the most wonderful, came over to keep an ear out (and did some quilting) while we scooted off to the local Westfield. We had to be quick - the department stores were closing at 9pm and the supermarkets by 10pm.

What a succesful trip it was! We managed to visit Kmart, Target, Coles and Woolworths and got almost everything that we'd planned... and more than a few unplanned items. Kids' summer clothes were heavily discounted! I didn't grab too many, but it's so incredible that they can sell them for so little. $5 shirts and pants. You can't even make them that cheaply. I'm still refraining from buying girls' clothes just yet - but the temptation is getting harder to resist as we get closer and closer to meeting our little one. Just four weeks to go!